What Would You Do?

[jcourtney]

We're trying to decide how to structure our family vacation this December and I honestly just can't decide what's better so I'm asking for opinions.

Here's a little background: there are 5 of us going (myself, DH, DS5, my mother-in-law, and father-in law), we will be booking 2 hotels rooms (one for us and one for the grandparents), I am Disney obsessed but have to remember that everyone else isn't as obsessed as me, the grandparents love the ocean and boating and marinas etc. We are flying in the first Saturday in December at 9:45pm and flying out the next Saturday at 8:45am (probably need to be at the airport by 6am). We have already purchased SoCal City Passes that include 3 days at Disney, 1 day at Legoland, 1 day at SeaWorld.

Here what we're debating:
1. The original plan was to spend the whole week in anaheim in the same hotel (we're booked at Camelot), upgrade to 5 day PH, rent a car for a day trip to Legoland. 5 days at Disney would us a slower pace and maximize our Disney time. However, the grandparents mentioned that they would like to see Sea World.
2. Spend the first 4 days of our trip at Anaheim, pack up and drive to Sea World, spend the night at the Legoland hotel, day at Legoland then drive to a hotel close to LAX before our flight out the next morning. This allows us to see both Sea World and Legoland, stay in the Legoland hotel (which looks cool), and not have to drive 4 hours in one day. It does however mean staying in 3 different hotels in one week which I'm not thrilled about. I'm not sure if staying close to LAX would actually save us any time since we would have to return the rental car that morning???
3. Much like #2 but opposite. Stay at a hotel close to LAX after our late arrival, drive to Sea World the next day, spend the night at the Legoland hotel, day at Legoland, drive to Anaheim that evening and the Camelot hotel and spend the next 4 days doing Disneyland.

What would you do? More Disney time? Head to San Diego at the end of our trip for one night? Head to San Diego first and finish up with Disney?

 

[spokanemom]

What I would do (and have);

Fly into San Diego. Do a one way car rental. The difference in rental car price would not be a big deal to me to keep me from driving all the way to/from LAX each time. I would do Sea World then move to Legoland. Finally, I would move to Anaheim to do Disneyland. I would fly out of SNA.

The hotel moving would not bother me as much on the front end of the trip because I would know that once we made it to Disneyland, we would be staying put.

 

[joseph821]

I like #1. You can see Sea World too. Is Lego Land necessary for DS5?

 

[jcourtney]

What I would do (and have);

Fly into San Diego. Do a one way car rental. The difference in rental car price would not be a big deal to me to keep me from driving all the way to/from LAX each time. I would do Sea World then move to Legoland. Finally, I would move to Anaheim to do Disneyland. I would fly out of SNA.

The hotel moving would not bother me as much on the front end of the trip because I would know that once we made it to Disneyland, we would be staying put.

Flying into San Diego would be ideal but unfortunately the flights are already booked. We're from Canada so we can get direct flights to/from LAX.

Good point with keeping the hotel moves at the beginning of the trip.

 

[jcourtney]

I like #1. You can see Sea World too. Is Lego Land necessary for DS5?

Yes, Legoland is necessary, haha. He's only this young for so long and I know he will love it. I personally don't care if I see Sea World at all, just the in-laws want to. I definitely don't want to drive back and forth from anaheim twice.

 

[figment_jii]

I would also vote to do the hotel moves at the start of the trip rather than at the end. So I would start the trip down in San Diego and then end up in Anaheim. Neither Sea World nor Legoland are open really late in December, so I don't think it would be that bad to spend the day at the park and then drive to Anaheim (Legoland closes at 5:00 pm on Sundays and Mondays in December, so even if you stayed until closing, you'd be in Anaheim before it got really late). I would drive down to San Diego on Saturday (arrival day), then spend Sunday in Sea World, Monday in Legoland, and then the rest of the trip in DL.

 

[rentayenta]

San Diego first even if you cannot fly into San Diego; enjoy that portion of the trip then do the Disney portion.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Hit SD first...if for no other reason that you will be fresh and rearing to go to travel and take on all the hotel moves and close out at Disneyland for the duration being relaxed vs trying to coordinate all those move at the end of the week and everyone tired, grumpy and possibly irritated!

That way you experience all three parks at 100% for the whole group.

I would drive to SD after arrival at LAX, but I am a nite owl.

 

[SMD]

I would ask the grandparents if they want to do Sea World on the day you do Legoland and if they do add a day of other non-theme park activities in San Diego. It might be cold in December, but there is still maritime stuff in San Diego that it sounds like they would enjoy. In lieu of a 4th Disney day I'd also consider a half day in SD on your travel day and then maybe a stop on Long Beach if they'd enjoy the aquarium or dinner on the Queen Mary.

With an 8:45 am flight I think it's worth going to an LAX hotel the night before because you can book one with a shuttle and return the rental car the night before. If you go that route maybe do Tue-Thur full park days, Fri partial park day, stop in Long Beach or Marina del Rey for dinner, then LAX hotel early enough to drop the car and still sleep before the early wake up.

 

[joseph821]

Ok. Then Lego Land it is!!

 

[Angrose]

Definitely SD, sea World, Legoland first. You want end with Disney because the other parks will pale in comparison, so they won't be as enjoyable if you do Disney first!

 

[cmwade77]

If you haven't booked flights, I would do the following:
Fly into LAX, spend time at Disneyland, do the car rental one way to San Diego, do Sea World, etc. and fly out of San Diego. Why that order you may ask? Well to be honest, I of course love Disney, but overall, Sea World and San Diego will be more of a Leisure pace than Disneyland, if for no other reason than they close earlier, which means a little extra relaxation before flying home. And yes, I know that is pretty much the opposite of everyone else's opinion on here, this is just my two cents based on various vacations where we had the more relaxing portion first and then the busier part second, we found that it made it a lot harder when we came back.

 

[Sergio S]

I just looked at the Legoland Calendar and it looks like they are closed Dec 5/6 and 12/13.
Here's the link which includes their hours of operations:
https://endpoint910861.azureedge.ne...land-california-resort-operating-calendar.pdf

The Legoland sealife resort is open on those days you'll be in CA from 11-5, so maybe that can be an alternative to Seaworld. If not, it Looks like seaworld is open the whole time but the one thing I noticed is on 12/3, theyre open from 11-730 while the other days theyre from 11-6.

What time are you arriving into LAX? That could be an adding a factor too. Customs, USDA Insp (I faced that in Philly and Phoenix), baggage, etc.

 

[DLfan4]

i would stay in the disney hotel the whole time. i would not switch hotels.


Sunday, drive to Legoland and spend the day there, then drive back to Anaheim hotel. do disney monday - thursday. Then Friday drive to Seaworld for the day, then back to Anaheim hotel.

 

[jcourtney]

Thanks everyone! I think what we've decided to do is spend the first night close to the airport, rent a car in the morning and drive to Sea World, spend the night a legoland hotel, spend the next day at Legoland and then drive to Anaheim that evening, then we will drop off the car and spend the next 4 days at Disney before heading home. I think it will work best to do all the travelling at the beginning and save Disney to last.